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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Why Constitutional Rights Don't Exist

Four Acts of Government that Prove the “Bill of Rights” Doesn't Mean Anything

Ah, the 4th of July; that wonderful holiday were we celebrate freedom, liberty, independence and a whole bunch of other abstract ideas that 300 million people couldn’t possibly come to a consensus definition upon by doing what Americans do best - eating large quantities of food and spending outrageous sums of money on things just so we can watch them explode a little later on in the evening.

For the most part, I enjoy the 4th of July, because it’s arguably the least subtle thing that has ever been invented. While a lot of countries do a fantastic job of being jingoistic and nationalistic, I don’t think any country on earth does it as spectacularly as the United States. Our parades and celebrations are just so over-the-top and grandiose, a notion made a gajillion times weirder because of the comically absurd amount of patriotic splendor dripping out of every man, woman, child, dog, street corner and media outlet come the first week of July. It’s not so much that people are celebrating their nation as they are trying to display the most fanatical devotion to a certain set of symbols in front of their neighbors - it’s as if people are trying to overcompensate for a lack of perceived patriotism the other 51 weeks of the year, so they have to go all out on the 4th or their contemporaries will think they’re communists or something.

But, outside of all of that hilariously tragic nationalism, I’m still a fan of the holiday. And I still think that, America, for all its faults and foibles, is still a pretty great place to live in. Sure, we have a gargantuan wealth inequity problem (with about a third of the country hovering just above the poverty line), and our legal system is still subject to a few, uh, abnormalities, regarding criminal sentencing, and we may or may not have a major problem regarding the prevalence of firearm-related homicides in the country, but you know what? All of that stuff is worth it, because we have something that very, very few nations have: constitutionally-protected rights that are truly and completely respected by our governing bodies.

A lot of people like to go on about how great the U.S. Constitution is, but the reality is, it’s just a crinkled up sheet of paper with nothing more than symbolic power. You could argue that our constitutional rights are actually endowed to us by the Supreme Court, as their ability to dictate what the Constitution means is really the closest thing we have to expansive, guaranteed civil right protection in the nation. In that, our guaranteed individual rights are pretty much contingent on the moods of just nine people, and needless to say, they have made some, well, rather dubious calls in the past. I mean, some very, very dubious ones. Jesus people, you seriously have no idea how dubious I’m talking here.

That said, even the Supreme Court can’t really prevent members of the executive or legislative branch from coming up with, passing and enforcing laws and mandates that ignore pretty much everything the Constitution says. Despite our perpetual praise of the “Bill of Rights,” the United States government has enacted numerous programs and policies over the last 60 years that utterly shit on our notions of constitutional rights, and what do you know? There’s really nothing anybody can do about it.

So, what kind of legislation and programs am I talking about here? Well, here are just four examples in recent U.S. history of the government deciding the Constitution just doesn’t count in certain aspects and scenarios…

The McCarran Act (1950)

Pat McCarran: the man that made the "blacklist" cool again.

In the 1950s, there was this thing called “the Cold War.” At that point in time, two superpowers - capital-loving America and commune-loving Russia - were vying for global influence. Many politicians in the U.S. were very paranoid, and suspected that a number of rogue Commie agents had infiltrated the U.S. government. They also suspected that there was a monolithic communist movement going on, and it was only a matter of time until all of those godless reds got together and tried to overthrow the nation.

While large chunks of the law were overturned following the Non-Detention Act of 1971, many implications of the McCarran Act are still applicable today, specifically in regards to military intelligence. In fact, two major, highprofile espionage cases in recent years involved charges stemming from the McCarran Act - a Cold War relic that, obviously, still has influence on national security legislation to this day.

COINTELPRO (1956-1971)

A document showing how the FBI utilized TMZ.com tactics to eliminate political dissidents.

What do Muhammad Ali, Abbie Hoffman, John Lennon, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Elijah Muhammad have in common? If you said they were all countercultural icons of the 1950s and 1960s, you’d be right. And if you said they were all targets of a vast, super-illegal FBI conspiracy to destabilize political and social movements during the Civil Rights era…well, you’d also be correct.

Clearly, the COINTELPRO operations were a blatant violation of the First Amendment, with FBI field instructions actually listing things like “restrict the ability to organize protests” and “restrict the ability of individuals to participate in group activities” as project goals. For those of you that like to champion the United States as a bastion for individual freedom and expression - this is something you MIGHT just want to take a look at.

REX 84 (1984)

This man wants to take you camping (right after he finishes shredding all those pesky documents, of course.)

"So to uphold the Constitution, we sometimes have to do things that are against the Constitution. Like having one. At all."

On May 4, 2007 President George W. Bush signed a Presidential Directive called “National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20” - an order usually referenced as “Executive Directive 51.” It was one of many such directives issued by Bush in the wake of 9/11, and most media outlets totally ignored it as a result.

A rather verbose passage to be sure, but once you translate the politispeak into actual English, the absolutely staggering scope of “Executive Directive 51” presents itself fully, with decrees that not only eliminate the idea of private property (sections c through e), but eliminate the idea of individual liberty altogether - the last two provisions, in essence, say that in times of “national catastrophe,” the interim government has the ability to move you around - and force you into labor or detention - if need be.

While the incredibly vague definition of what constitutes a “national emergency” makes the order a very powerful document, perhaps it is what the document doesn’t say that makes “Executive Directive 51” such a potentially dangerous document - while it (albeit, poorly) defines what a national emergency is, it says virtually nothing about what occurs once that hypothetical emergency “ends,” or even how the nation is to transfer from an “emergency government” back to a “constitutional one.” Then again, that probably shouldn’t be a surprise - after all, W. was never really one to draw up blueprints for an exit strategy of any kind, was he?

So, later on today, when you're eating your hot dogs and drinking your soda and watching your second cousin blow his thumbs off with M-80s, just remember - we're all so fortunate to live in a land this free.

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About Your Friendly Neighborhood Jimbo...

Greetings, Intraweb travelers! My name is Jimbo X (an unusual surname, I know...I think it's Greenlandic) and I'm your kindly proprietor of IIIA. You're probably wondering what the intent of this site is, so that makes two of us. I suppose it's an info-dump for all of the stuff that I find fascinating/irksome about American culture and society, so you'll find a nice jumble of high culture snobbery and low culture sleaze here. It's also a place for me to rant, rave and ramble about all sorts of things that matter and don't matter, so prepare yourself for some heavy-handed bloviating about politics and consumption. Well, that, and lots of stuff about video games and junk food. The things that matter the most obviously.